Comments on: Shades of followup

By: j.

j. — Wed, 24 May 2006 11:33:28 +0000

Comments will be closed on this post because of a surge of comment spam. Sorry! If you want to comment, feel free to find another post in this category where the comments are still open.

By: gues who

gues who — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:42:40 +0000

there is a statement on the forum regarding the trademark issue. http://www.sewfastseweasy.com/stitch_and_bitch/index.php

By: jenn jenn

jenn jenn — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 22:44:19 +0000

SFSE has been using that on their books since I took classes there in 2000. Not sure what is going on, but I am kind of interested in the gossip.

By: deety

deety — Fri, 13 May 2005 17:16:40 +0000

I can't remember where I read it, so it may not be that accurate. But I remember hearing that SFSE claimed they had only recently been made aware of the SnB books and groups. This sounds pretty hard to believe, and when taking a look at the archives of their posting board I found references to the book and groups going at least as far back as January 2004. The comments even include speculation about the origins of the phrase and whether or not it was lifted from SFSE. They obviously read this board, there are many responses from SFSE staff on that page. I cut and pasted the contents of those posts into my blog, or you can search this page for "bitch" and find them. It probably doesn't mean anything, but it shows that they should have already been aware of these knitting books and groups, and they just ignored the issue for almost a year and a half.

By: Kristi

Kristi — Fri, 13 May 2005 10:21:44 +0000

Robin, I saved that comment because I thought it was amusing. I don’t know who posted it though (I didn’t grab it from the original, someone else did and posted it elsewhere, where I found it). Anyway, here it is:

My grandmother was in a Stitch & Bitch club at Sarah Lawrence University in 1938 when she was there, so I don’t think you all made up the phrase. If you took something of someone else’s and capitalized on it, fine. But don’t lie and say it was your idea to begin with. I even have the 1940 yearbook, the year she graduated, and there are pictures of 14 women and the phrase “stitchery and bitchery – the ladies of the stitch and bitch club, mcconley hall.”

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 13 May 2005 06:42:41 +0000

I’m sure it vanished some time ago, but at the time I looked at the SFSE guestbook one comment cited her grandmother’s 1938 college yearbook, which had a group photo of a club captioned “stitchery and bitchery”. That seems like something that could actually be verified, if only one could recall the university…it was a name I recognized and in the eastern US is all I remember.

By: Steph

Steph — Thu, 12 May 2005 23:49:33 +0000

Thanks for clarifying. However it would be sad if someone could TM SNB for their knitting group and then no one else could advertise their yarn shop’s SNB for fear of a lawsuit.

Or am I misreading this?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 12 May 2005 15:30:26 +0000

On the issue of whether the phrase or the book came first: the phrase defeinitely came first. I used it in a knitting a crocheting group 10 years ago, before the books were published. In fact, I’d be extremely reluctant to use that name for a new group. I’m not a huge fan of the books (for many reasons, not the least of which are the hordes of new knitters who are being taught to YO incorrectly), and with the popularity of the books, I’m sure that many newer knitters must think that the informal groups are somehow affiliated with or obligated to knit patterns from the books. Nuh-uh.

Of course, I think the whole thing is silly. People are wasting their time and energy on this junk, when they could be writing more books or doing other things to get more involved in actual knitting related activities. It amazes me how litigious our society is. *sigh*